Originally Posted by LEADERS EDGE:
Run of the mill Saturday Night Stock Car Shows are really struggling. In fact; if you look at the numbers on most nights; the car counts seem to decline as the class gets cheaper. Why? Because the people running the limited classes are barely making it and a lay off or ailment may put them over the edge.
The Late Model classes that run the World 100 and such are extremely expensive to run. More than a USAC Sprint.
Often when people quit doing something or participating in something it's because the have lost whatever that connection is that they felt towards it. You lose your status to it so it loses it's status to you.
Make no mistake about it.....Auto Racing as a whole is very healthy. There is so many different classes that people just pick and choose where they want to run and where they are comfortable. What that does in return though is split and divide everything. You have more as a whole, but less in a group.
You hit on something here that I've wondered about a lot also. Late Models in general are a lot more expensive and require a lot more time and work. With the body work and everything, typically every week. Why is it that even though they are more expensive to run but yet they have more car counts all the time? I know older guys run them a lot longer and you have 'kids' but not nearly as many as USAC. It baffles me, I know there are more BLUE COLLAR guys running late models weekly versus sprints and they are getting the lions share of the crowds. Not to mention when costs became an issue they were quick to put out crates, which seems to be thriving...
I wonder why that is? Anyone? USAC gets 3 days at East bay..LM's get practically a month between East bay and Volusia not to mention Golden Isles in GA. What makes them so much more popular than sprints? I have my thoughts but I would love to hear yours.